Best Soldering Gun

[xiao_haozi]

Thanks for the advice!
Currently I have a radio shack iron, and was looking for something nicer.
It did work pretty good until the tip got superdeformed, lol.

My biggest issue with looking online for the Hakko has been trying to figure out if it comes w/ the small, medium, or large iron. I think I was looking at the 936-12...with the medium sized iron. The small one looked limited tip-wise.

loegan43: never thought to look at fry's, then again we don't have them around here:P

TheBakachan: That Aoyue looks pretty interesting, lots of stuff for not really all that expensive considering all the stuff it has. I forget where I saw that brand mentioned before.

Looks like I got more thinkin to do!

Amazon is always worth a browse as well. I've bought a lot of my soldering setup from there of recent. I picked up a new Weller station in August when it was about 30% off and free shipping. So it's always worth a look to see if something you have your eye on might be more affordable there.

 

[Joe West]

I use the portable "cold heat" runs on batterys, you can touch it & you dont get burned, its great & doe's the job.......

 

[norton9478]

I use the portable "cold heat" runs on batterys, you can touch it & you dont get burned, its great & doe's the job.......

what type of battery?

 

[TheBakachan]

ColdHeat irons should not be used for electronics work. Soldering wires and things? Fair enough. But anything involving ICs and stuff? Forget it.

There's a reason any good soldering station uses insulated ceramic heating elements; it's to keep voltage the hell away from what you're working on. A ColdHeat will actually run power through any circuit you put it in contact with.

 

[Kyuusaku]

I really don't think that's how it works, the tip should have negligible current leakage like any other iron.

 

[TheBakachan]

I really don't think that's how it works, the tip should have negligible current leakage like any other iron.

http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/cold-soldering2.htm

 

[buaku]

Amazon is always worth a browse as well. I've bought a lot of my soldering setup from there of recent. I picked up a new Weller station in August when it was about 30% off and free shipping. So it's always worth a look to see if something you have your eye on might be more affordable there.

I did poke around amazon, that's where my issue with the Hakko came in. Two 936's but two different prices from the same place. I'm guessing one is the small iron and one is the medium iron, but it was hard to tell.